Demountable kite construction



Jan. 11 1955 w. A. coRBm DEMOUNTABLE KITE CONSTRUCTION Filed June 9, 1953 ww/zaA ATTORNEY United States Patent Oil 2,699,307 DEMOUNTABLE KITE CONSTRUCTION William A. Corbin, Harmony, R. I. Application June 9, 1953, Serial No. 360,420 3 Claims. (Cl. 244-153) The present invention relates ticularly to a knockdown kite by the user.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a kite which automatically maintains its stability and equipoise when in flight.

Another object of the invention is to provide a kite which has a simple frame structure for easy assembly, disassembly and repair.

A further object of the invention is to provide a kite which combines lightness and ability to withstand the roughest treatment by the user and the elements.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a kite having the composite members thereof in slidable supporting and adjusting relation to each other.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, the invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts, more fully disclosed in the detailed descrip tion following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and more particularly defined in the claims appended thereto.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a perspective view of the kite Fig. 2 is a plan view of the kite;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a stabilizing vane;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a modified kite construction.

It has been found advantageous to provide a kite which is light in weight and yet sturdy and strong, easy to assembled and disassemble, and which has the composite parts yieldingly adjustable for keeping the kite frame members in their respective relative position without binding to automatically maintain the stability of the kite while in flight. To this end, I preferably form my kite with a six-sided sail sheet, of light sanforized cloth having an open hem around its periphery and including a free running line within the hem which ties at the bottom center of the said sheet. A demountable framework of light weight members, preferably made of wood, holds the kite together in flying condition when assembled, and comprises two parallelly spaced longitudinal struts and two parallelly spaced stretchers positioned crosswise in slidable relation over the longitudinal struts. These struts and stretchers have end slits which receive and engage portions of the free running line which are exposed at spaced intervals along the open hem. Spaced angularly disposed vanes normally depend from the longitudinal struts of the assembled kits and include aligned passageways for receiving a bridle strut in spaced parallel relation to the longitudinal struts, a bridle being secured to the bridle strut and having a kite line for maintaining the kite captive when in flight.

Referring to the drawings, the figures illustrate my novel construction; the kite consists of a sail sheet 11, preferably made of non-shrinking sanforized cloth; the sail sheet is symmetrically shaped with six sides, an upper side 12a and two diverging inclined sides 12b and 120 forming wide trapezoidal head 12 and two converging inclined sides 12c and i2d and a bottom side 210 forming a trapezoidal body 1311 and a narrow tail 13b. An open hem 14 is provided around the outer edges of the sail sheet, receives a selvage string 15 which is exposed at spaced cut-away portions 1.6 of the open hem, as illustrated, with the free ends of the string tied into a bow to a kite, and more parwhich is easily assembled in flying position;

2,699,307 Patented Jan. 11, 1955 knot at the tail after the kite is assembled and the slack taken up.

A framework 17, preferably of wood, serves to hold the kite together and consists of parallel body struts 18, 19 spaced longitudinally across the length of the sail sheet from the upper side 12a to the lower side 12a, a head stretcher 2t) and a tail stretcher 21 parallelly spaced across the width of the sail sheet between Fig. 4. The struts and the stretchers each have end notches 22 which respectively receive and engage exposed portions 15 of the selvage string, as illustrated in Fig. 3, whereby the kite is readily assembled and is kept rigid when flying.

Angularly disposed stabilizing vanes 23, 24, preferably made of sanforized cloth, and each having side open sists of two demountable kites, a front kite 33, having their respective sail sheets 34, 35 secured to each other head to tail, as illustrated, by sewing to form a double kite. The sail sheets each have an open free ends tied into a kite and which is exposed at spaced cut-away portions of the open hem, in the manner shown in Fig. 4, whereby two body struts 36, 37 parallelly spaced longitudinally across the length of the double kite stretchers 38, 39, 40 and 41 parallelly spaced over and across the body struts engage and receive the exposed portions of the selvage string within end notches provided at the ends of both the body struts and the stretchers. A front vane 42, a center vane 43, and a rear vane 44, all angularly disposed and normally depending from the body struts, as illustrated in Fig. 4, provide equipoise to the kite in flight, and have aligned passageways, not shown, to receive a bridle strut such as shown in Fig. l, with a bridle and a kite line.

It is now clear that my novel construction provides a readily assembled kite which is durable and which has maximum lifting power. The relative free independent its shape while in flight. The absence of direct securing means on the struts to hold down the sail sheet enables the sail sheet to belly out like a balloon while in flight, giving the kite a greater lifting power than is otherwise possible by standard kites, and the angularly disposed stabilizing vanes provide equipoise even on very windy days.

Although I have disclosed a specific constructional feature of my invention, it is obvious that changes in the size, shape and arrangement of the parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a knock-down kite, a sail sheet having six sides, the upper side and two diverging inclined sides forming a wide trapezoidal head, and two converging sides and the bottom side forming a trapezoidal body and a narrow trapezoidal tail, said sheet having a hem with openings at the junctions of the sides and at the junctions of the body and tail and containing a continuous selvage string, two parallel body struts extending longitudinally across the length of the sail sheet and having end notches for receiving the exposed string at the head and tail hem openings, and two parallel stretchers extending crosswise over the body struts for free sliding movement and having end notches for receiving the exposed string at the junctions between the head and body and the body and tail, whereby the sail sheet is kept taut by the struts and References Cited in the file of this patent the tail of the first kite, and the struts extending from the 10 head of the first kite to the tail of the second kite.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Thompson Mar. 9,

Conyne Apr. 29,

Peuvot Feb. 14,

Conyne Oct. 17,

Ayling Apr. 18,

FOREIGN PATENTS Australia June 15, 

